The appropriation of physical objects or of human beings is more blatant than the appropriation of intangibles like property rights, but the principles and effects are similar. Neither "property" nor the value of property is a physical thing. Property is a set of defined options, some of which can be sold separately from others. It is that set of options which has economic value. It is the option, and not the physical things, which are the "property" --- economically as well as legally.
Property rights which are not attached to any physical object are even more vulnerable politically.(contract, the right to use some property) Changing the retirement age a few years in either direction is the same as forcibly transferring billions of dollars from one group to another. One of the largest financial commitments arbitrarily changed by changing the retirement age is that of the government's own "Social Security" program---which saves billions of dollars by postponing its own payments to the retired by forcing employers to continue to hire them longer.
While prices are crucial as conveyors of knowledge to decision makers, artificial prices which distort this knowledge can persist only insofar as competitors whose prices would convey the true knowledge are forcibly excluded.
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